ChicagoTom wrote:For the first time this season I cannot fault the effort or committment of this team for the loss last night. Unfortunately, effort alone was not enough to get that all important first win.

After sleeping a few hours after the game and thinking about it a bit, I am still baffled as to why Nellie had the Warriors defending the Cavs last important possession in a zone. And on top of that, why on Earth would they leave Gibson alone for a three. The Warriors have a team of athletes that can and should be able to guard teams man-to-man. I know Lebron is going to command a double team most of the night, but to leave Gibson open playing a zone defense with slow rotations is just unacceptable to me. It is not as though this was the first time all night he had hit a three. That was his fifth. You would think the Warriors would get the picture that if Lebron does not take the shot, he will find Gibson for a shot of his own from outside the arc. The Warriors should NOT have been playing zone. I do not get that at all.

Monta was good tonight and provided a big spark in the second quarter. Biedrins chipped in tonight as well and had a nice game. Having those two play well will surely help this team pick up some wins.

What I have noticed this season is that the Warriors do a good job of fighting back in games after being down. They have done it most every game. Unfortunately, once they are back tied or leading by one, they seem to fall apart. They somehow need to find a way to not just catch teams, but catch teams and blow past them and take a commanding lead. They seem to allow teams to stay in games by taking ill advised shots or letting the opponent get an offensive board or something that leads to another possession. That has to change.

Lastly, there seems to be too much one-on-one stuff going on with this team. It is as though one guy gets the ball and everyone else stands around and watches that player make a move and take a shot. There is little to no movement on this team and that needs to be addressed. If you watch the Suns they are always moving and getting easy shots created by their off the ball movement. The Warriors could learn a thing or two watching them play. Until this team learns to move a little bit without the ball and stops standing around they will continue to lose games.

Nicley put Tom. I was at the game as well, the Ws looked good but the defense was pretty bad, especially when they were playing zone. I know they were trying to prevent a powerful James from penetrating, but horrible rotation. And the free throws have to get better, one other thing that cost them the game. That ane the terrible calls by the refs. there were a couple that were a joke.

I know some people do not like Jim Barnett but he made a great point last night with regards to the Warriors defense. It might look like the bigs are not playing good defense and allowing easy hoops under the basket, but that is a direct effect of our perimater guys playing horrible on ball defending.

In other words, if opponent A gets by Baron, Monta or another one of our perimeter players, someone down low has to step up and help the beaten defender. That then messes up the entire defensive rotations of this team. They are too slow rotating and the on-ball defending must get better soon.

If the perimeter players do better at defending the ball, you will see much fewer easy hoops under the basket.

BWright is a -8 which is what I expected after watching the game. Also Azu had a bad game.... POB was good defensively except for the burn that put him back on the bench...Bottom line if we had JRich we would be and least 2 and 2...

this team is breaking my heart. Do this guys practice freethrows? This is their job, they are professional players why cant they shoot freethrows? damn! They could have won those close games if they just sink their freethrows.

Yea true cant blame one person lets just blame TEAM DEFENSE needs to improve, we make nobodys in stars. First game it was against the Jazz it was Brewer going for 18, then the Clippers- the team without Elton Brand, the whole team looked like stars, Then Brewer again, last night it was Gibson going for 22. Ohh on top of that the real Stars on those team was shining too.
Hard to hear but thats a bad trend that needs to be fixed.

Hated to see the loss, especially since its was close and very winnable. Still, I want to point out a couple of possitives from the game:

--first quarter drives. Azu, Baron, and Al were all making a serious effort to drive on the Cavs and take it to the rim. I MUCH prefer to see that over the '3's for days' strategy that tends to be the W's offense. Unfortunately, the ball did not want to go down for the W's in the 1st, but I liked the energy and effort.

--some form of half-court offense. BD/Dre pick and roll, Azu and Al making backdoor cuts. All good stuff, and again, preferable to the '3's for days'

--Dre looked pretty good out there. At least better than the first couple of games.